Alex Brandon/AP

In much of the world, Grok and its parent company both appear to be in serious trouble. After Grok, X’s AI chatbot, has been used to generate sexualized and violent images of women and children, the social media company has faced a wave of backlash and censure, with new nationwide bans on accessing Grok in place and other consequences on the way. On Monday, the EU threatened to fine X under its broad Digital Services Act if it didn’t act “quickly” to fix Grok, in the words of one regulator.

But within the secure confines of Elon Musk’s own mind, Grok is not only wildly successful, but “solid as a rock,” as he tweeted on Monday, with the goal of pursuing “the deeper truth and appreciation of beauty.”

Musk slammed Grok’s critics as people who “just want to suppress free speech.” 

The outrage over Grok’s lack of guardrails has been raging for weeks, after X delivered an update on Christmas Eve which allowed users to edit images and videos on the app. That included other people’s images and videos, and the tool was inevitably and quickly used for violently sexualized campaigns against the platform’s female users. Images of women in street clothes were undressed and images of women in hijabs and other religious modesty garments had them removed, as users generated images of women and girls bloodied and bruised. X eventually limited the tool to paid subscribers, which seems to mean that you can still make nonconsensual images if you pay for the privilege. 

The Internet Watch Foundation, a UK non-profit,

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